========================= Bleaching Report ===========================
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************** Bleaching in NW Hawaiian Islands ***********************
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Report from: Rusty Brainard
NOAA/NMFS
Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: 6 October 2002
A collaborative 30-day reef assessment cruise of the NW Hawaiian Islands
was completed in early October. "Based on (NOAA Coral Reef Watch's
satellite) HotSpot alert and our in-situ observations from the CREWS
buoys, the Townsend Cromwell team focused much of our attention on the
high coral cover areas of the shallow back reefs and other lagoon
habitats at Pearl & Hermes Atoll, Midway Atoll and Kure Atoll. To our
amazement and horror, vast areas of the backreef were severely bleached.
From our towed diver surveys, which covered about 135 km of reef habitat
at these three atolls, many areas were observed to have suffered greater
than 50% coral mortality. Some areas had coral mortality close to 75%.
While we are still working up the data, it is clear that this event was
a major event for the NWHI, where widespread coral bleaching had
previously never been observed.
"Our CREWS buoys recorded in-situ temperatures at Pearl and Hermes Atoll
jumping above 27 C on July 18 and over 29 C on Aug. 3. The CREWS buoy at
Midway recorded temperatures above 28 C for the entire month of Aug,
with occasional jumps to 29.5 C."
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NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Project
NOAA/NESDIS
16 October 2002